1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to correcting defects found during the play of electronic storage devices, and more particularly to providing an online system and method for locating, identifying, and backing up electronic media, including copy protected media, on electronic storage devices either in real-time or prior to the play.
2. Description of Related Art
Restoring corrupted electronic files requires an available original or master copy having a pristine version of the corrupted portion for copying. Obtaining an original or master copy of certain files that are copy protected, however, poses additional problems not encountered with non-copy protected files. Copy protection is built into many types of data that are stored in electronic media such as Digital Video Discs (DVD), Compact Discs (CD), and other electronic storage devices. Moreover, various formats are used for storing the information on electronic media, such as CD-audio and MP3, to name a few. MP3 and other compression formats require decompression conversion at some point in the data transfer. MP3 is part of MPEG, an acronym for Motion Pictures Expert Group, a family of standards for displaying video and audio using lossy compression. Regardless of the audio or data formatting schemes, copy protection is generally built-in before purchasing the electronic media in order to protect against unauthorized copying, which is in violation of copyright laws. Unfortunately, copy protection prevents the legitimate copying of files stored on electronic media to a subsequent backup disc to protect against the event the data becomes corrupted. For example, when sections of a music playing compact disc becomes damaged or corrupted, the loss of music information is noticeable as the compact disc is played. The loss of music information usually defined as a skip in the music or a cessation of play.
The prior art has not addressed this problem in real-time, relying instead upon software fixes that require at least a re-formatting or rebooting of the playing system. For example, in U.S. Patent Publication No. US2005/0021919 A1 filed by Kroening on Jul. 24, 2003, entitled “SAVE AND RESTORE OF A PROTECTED AREA,” a method, apparatus, system, and signal-bearing medium is taught that saves a protected area of a storage device by booting to a protected area, copying the contents of the protected area to the user area of the storage device, rebooting to the user area, and then saving the user area to a backup storage device.
In the present invention the corrupted files detected are not in a protected area; rather, they are detected either dynamically or by prior analysis. Furthermore, when the files are read, executed, or played, the present invention accesses an uncorrupted copy from the network, stores the uncorrupted segment of the file on a storage device and merges this segment into the reading, executing, or playing of the file to seamlessly produce an output in real-time that is indistinguishable from the uncorrupted file. If the master copy is of a compressed format, the present invention requires decompression as part of the conversion process.